Are there any sure fire ways to spot a knock off jersey? I picked up a couple "defects" on the low low, but I'm pretty sure they're knock offs. Any way to know for sure? For the price I don't even really care, just curious.

A friend of mine *cough cough wink wink* has a knock off Russell Wilson "authentic" jersey. I'm telling you, if he didn't tell you it was a fake, you'd believe it's the real thing. We've compared it with the REAL authentic jerseys and they are identical. No Hawks fan I've met has been able to tell it's a knockoff, only payed 30 bucks for it too, straight off a chinese website. However, the other day we found "the bootleg"...

Around the collar, there are only 11 totem feathers on each side, not 12.

I must say, excellent work, washes well and the stitching doesn't come undone. Real quality.

And another reason why China is killing us financially, while companies like Nike employ them, and jack prices through the roof to the people of America. (don't want to turn this into political, just stating the obvious)

Hawkstorian wrote:The NFL can bitch and moan all they want, but the fact is if regular jersey prices weren't so abusive they wouldn't have this problem.

Well of course they're going to bitch. No company wants competition, which leads to lower prices. I'd say its almost our duty to buy knock offs as fans though. The more people that buy them, the more chance the rich execs in sports will feel a little competition for once in their lives and finally lower their ridiculously high prices.

Hawkstorian wrote:The NFL can bitch and moan all they want, but the fact is if regular jersey prices weren't so abusive they wouldn't have this problem.

Well of course they're going to bitch. No company wants competition, which leads to lower prices. I'd say its almost our duty to buy knock offs as fans though. The more people that buy them, the more chance the rich execs in sports will feel a little competition for once in their lives and finally lower their ridiculously high prices.

As a policy, .NET does not support or condone the purchase of illegal merchandise. But the fact of the matter is that I completely agree with this assertion and tend to side with the fans on this one.

Zebulon Dak wrote:Are there any sure fire ways to spot a knock off jersey? I picked up a couple "defects" on the low low, but I'm pretty sure they're knock offs. Any way to know for sure? For the price I don't even really care, just curious.

Zeb,

Do the water test. Spray or sprinkle water on the jersey. If it absorbs water it's a fake. The water beads up on the real jerseys.

If the person you bought it off of look's as if they are of strong Chinese heritage, speaks broken English but their name is Joe. Probably a knockoff. But then again they are all made in China anyway so what's the difference?

Zebulon Dak wrote:Are there any sure fire ways to spot a knock off jersey? I picked up a couple "defects" on the low low, but I'm pretty sure they're knock offs. Any way to know for sure? For the price I don't even really care, just curious.

Zeb,

Do the water test. Spray or sprinkle water on the jersey. If it absorbs water it's a fake. The water beads up on the real jerseys.

Yep. This works. Also a lot of the fakes have different numbers of collar feathers. Some have them going the wrong direction.

I look at it as buying direct. I cut out the middell man and save $$$. I can buy a couple new jerseys each year, not feel bad about spending the money and don't care if I spill beer and salsa on it. Perfect gameday jersey. Do be careful washing them though - inside out and on gentle. You get what you pay for but for someone like me who doesn't care about the "realness" of it, the less expensive route is the way I go.

Largent80 wrote:If you paid less than a hundred for a screen print, its a fake.

They're not screen printed, they're stitched. The guy, who I didn't actually meet, friend of a friend, claims they're official Nike jerseys, defects from the manufacturer that didn't pass quality control. I assumed from the start that they were knock offs simple because of the unlikely scenario. And again, I don't even care if they're legit or not. I feel how tomahawk does about it. The fact that they're actually really nice is just a bonus.

Zebulon Dak wrote:Are there any sure fire ways to spot a knock off jersey? I picked up a couple "defects" on the low low, but I'm pretty sure they're knock offs. Any way to know for sure? For the price I don't even really care, just curious.

Zeb,

Do the water test. Spray or sprinkle water on the jersey. If it absorbs water it's a fake. The water beads up on the real jerseys.

And if the water test doesn't work, try the fire test. A real Jersey will not let you be incinerated. You should try this as soon as you can.

It's worth buying the real ones, I was gonna fake but then I saw how bad the quality of the Seahawks nike fakes are, I spent the $135 to get a real limited lynch jersey from nflshop.com at the beginning of the season and I don't regret it.

Decided to take some pictures of my buddy's "China Special" Russell Wilson Authentic jersey. Can you tell the difference? Count the feathers. And is it REALLY that big of a deal to you to not avoid spending mass amounts of cashola on it? The jersey looks sick, regardless haha

Zeb- I used to get Mitchell n Ness defects from their warehouse< they were ebay seller (Lakeshow) anyways all the jerseys that were defects always had the tag in the collar snipped or cut in half. Ive noticed that seems pretty standard way garment companies identitfy defect merchandise<

I forgot to add that the numbers have darker grey as well...the real ones are a lighter grey. You can see the mesh I mentioned as well in the pics. There is one on youtube where she is taking suggestions. They have fixed some issues.

First off I haven't really seen any fake screen prints, cus most ppl aren't gonna bother getting a knock off screen print (how cheap are you at that point).

But anyway:

1) the stitched numbers tend to be smaller. Especially on the back, the numbers should pretty much take up the entire box, the fake ones have spaces.

2) The stitched numbers on fakes kind of look like glitter, rather than the entire number being somewhat reflective it'll be glittery looking if that makes any sense.

3) the number print colors and logos on it should be complimentary if it's completely popping almost as if the background was black that's another big give away

4) Big give away..if it's an Elite jersey and the shoulder side strips (the grey part that says SEAHAWKS) are not arching up and meet slightly at the Flywire. It's a fake. The only ones that did that were the first run of Elites but Nike corrected that midway through the season (yes I owned both direct from the Pro Shop).

5) Side strips from chest to arms should also match up, a lot of them don't match>

Here's a good way to tell just from eBay alone:

Real:1) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nike-Elite-Auth ... 19d7240986 - note how the shoulder strips meet the flywire, note back number takes up almost entire box, some of the marshawn lynch ones actually extend outside of the box. When you take a picture, the jersey should NOT reflect your flash.

Screen Print: All names (mostly)Limited: Lynch, Rice, Thomas, Fan are the only ones to Date that have actually been made, the rest are fakeElite: Outside of custom jerseys made from nflshop.com (and no one would pay $300 for a custom elite jersey only to turn it around and sell it for under $200). The only ones made are Lynch, Fan, Thomas, Rice, Baldwin. There are a FEW Wilsons made but those were ALSO customs made directly by the Pro Shop. Note that the elite jerseys from the Pro Shop for the first half of the season wwere actually blanks that they had customized by the shop that does the names/numbers for the on-field jerseys. That being said those jerseys actually have slightly larger numbers and names than those being made directly by Nike. I can post a pic of my two Lynch elite jerseys later to show if interested (one customized by Proshop early season that I got signed and replaced by a direct from Nike one later).

NYCoug wrote:Decided to take some pictures of my buddy's "China Special" Russell Wilson Authentic jersey. Can you tell the difference? Count the feathers. And is it REALLY that big of a deal to you to not avoid spending mass amounts of cashola on it? The jersey looks sick, regardless haha

Thanks for sharing, but you can see that the background green behind the number 3 on the front and back is stitched on instead of being a separate piece of neon green fabric...

Largent80 wrote:If you paid less than a hundred for a screen print, its a fake.

They're not screen printed, they're stitched. The guy, who I didn't actually meet, friend of a friend, claims they're official Nike jerseys, defects from the manufacturer that didn't pass quality control. I assumed from the start that they were knock offs simple because of the unlikely scenario. And again, I don't even care if they're legit or not. I feel how tomahawk does about it. The fact that they're actually really nice is just a bonus.

Thanks for the input guys.

I'm personally not a fan of the knock offs not only because it's not legit. Is also because NONE of the money goes to the team/players. I mean yes, I'm sure of the $100-$250 you spend on a jersey, it can be argued that maybe only $5 of each jersey may actually benefit the team. But at least some of it goes that direction. Meanwhile the $60 you send to China benefits some random douche getting rich off of something they have no rights to make money off of at all. That kind of my own personal feeling on it, it's not the same as many others otherwise there would be no business for the knock offs.

First off I haven't really seen any fake screen prints, cus most ppl aren't gonna bother getting a knock off screen print (how cheap are you at that point).

But anyway:

4) Big give away..if it's an Elite jersey and the shoulder side strips (the grey part that says SEAHAWKS) are not arching up and meet slightly at the Flywire. It's a fake. The only ones that did that were the first run of Elites but Nike corrected that midway through the season (yes I owned both direct from the Pro Shop).

Real:1) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nike-Elite-Auth ... 19d7240986 - note how the shoulder strips meet the flywire, note back number takes up almost entire box, some of the marshawn lynch ones actually extend outside of the box. When you take a picture, the jersey should NOT reflect your flash.

Screen Print: All names (mostly)Limited: Lynch, Rice, Thomas, Fan are the only ones to Date that have actually been made, the rest are fakeElite: Outside of custom jerseys made from nflshop.com (and no one would pay $300 for a custom elite jersey only to turn it around and sell it for under $200). The only ones made are Lynch, Fan, Thomas, Rice, Baldwin. There are a FEW Wilsons made but those were ALSO customs made directly by the Pro Shop. Note that the elite jerseys from the Pro Shop for the first half of the season wwere actually blanks that they had customized by the shop that does the names/numbers for the on-field jerseys. That being said those jerseys actually have slightly larger numbers and names than those being made directly by Nike. I can post a pic of my two Lynch elite jerseys later to show if interested (one customized by Proshop early season that I got signed and replaced by a direct from Nike one later).

I got my Wilson Elite at the start of the season and mine looks exactly like the Elites directly from the Nike website. The gray stripe sits slightly below the flywire. Are you saying Nike corrected that and now the gray stripes actually touch the flywire? On top of the that, mine holds up to the water test. Water beads up on the shoulder and the Nike logo on the shoulder is part of the screen print and not a Nike swoosh patch like the Thomas jersey from the EBay link you posted.

Greenhell wrote:I got my Wilson Elite at the start of the season and mine looks exactly like the Elites directly from the Nike website. The gray stripe sits slightly below the flywire. Are you saying Nike corrected that and now the gray stripes actually touch the flywire? On top of the that, mine holds up to the water test. Water beads up on the shoulder and the Nike logo on the shoulder is part of the screen print and not a Nike swoosh patch like the Thomas jersey from the EBay link you posted.

- Yup your Wilson Elite Like my Lynch Elite at the start of the season were made by the pro shop customized by their team vendor. It used the old Nike elite blanks which had the gray stripes as you say slightly below the fly wire (like the gameday and limited ones..which IMO is garbage cus that's not how the on-fields are like). The new elites from Nike and the proshop have the gray stripes tilting up just a little and connecting to the fly wire. Not exactly like the on-fields but about as close as you can get.

Greenhell wrote:I got my Wilson Elite at the start of the season and mine looks exactly like the Elites directly from the Nike website. The gray stripe sits slightly below the flywire. Are you saying Nike corrected that and now the gray stripes actually touch the flywire? On top of the that, mine holds up to the water test. Water beads up on the shoulder and the Nike logo on the shoulder is part of the screen print and not a Nike swoosh patch like the Thomas jersey from the EBay link you posted.

- Yup your Wilson Elite Like my Lynch Elite at the start of the season were made by the pro shop customized by their team vendor. It used the old Nike elite blanks which had the gray stripes as you say slightly below the fly wire (like the gameday and limited ones..which IMO is garbage cus that's not how the on-fields are like). The new elites from Nike and the proshop have the gray stripes tilting up just a little and connecting to the fly wire. Not exactly like the on-fields but about as close as you can get.

I don't have a pic of my jersey alone but yeah that's my new jersey and you can see what i mean.

I bought mine from a private seller on Ebay. Scored it for $90 and before anyone knew he was gonna be that great. I wonder why neither Nikes offical site nor the Seahawks Pro Shop shows the newer version of the Elite jersey???

Also, I'm wondering if mine might have been some what of a reject as the blue stitching on the left kinda overlaps onto the sleeve and there were no Wilson Elite jerseys. My jersey came wrapped up brand new in a plastic sleeve unopened. I wonder if Nike made a batch of Wilson Elite jerseys and dumped them off thinking he'd be a backup QB? Heh heh heh...little did Nike know. I'll post pics of my Wilson tomorrow. Off to bed now.

Mine looks like the Lynch jersey below. Gray stripe sits just below the flywire as described.

NYCoug wrote:A friend of mine *cough cough wink wink* has a knock off Russell Wilson "authentic" jersey. I'm telling you, if he didn't tell you it was a fake, you'd believe it's the real thing. We've compared it with the REAL authentic jerseys and they are identical. No Hawks fan I've met has been able to tell it's a knockoff, only payed 30 bucks for it too, straight off a chinese website. However, the other day we found "the bootleg"...

Around the collar, there are only 11 totem feathers on each side, not 12.

I must say, excellent work, washes well and the stitching doesn't come undone. Real quality.

PM me the website if you would. I saw a knockoff White Lynch jersey at Tulalip casino a few months back and it looked real nice, I asked the guy where he got it and he said his buddy got it from a knockoff site for $30. It was of very good quality.

to each their own, but I won't purchase a knockoff jersey.. they don't look at all similar when next to the real thing.. the color around the "3" is not even close, the gray from the should to the chest is not even close nor is the font on the Seahawks correct..

Whatever floats your boat.. or find someone who works at Nike and have them hook you up at the employee store... $50.00 for the replicas..